City fires back: Unrecorded police station line not for cover-ups

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The city's lawyers are claiming that the Grand Rapids police officers who used the department's so-called "non-recorded" line have no expectation to privacy under city policies, according to court documents filed Friday.

Lawyers for Grand Rapids city and police officials filed a response Friday to the class-action lawsuit brought by former Lt. Matthew Janiskee over the recording of a phone line in the police station.

Janiskee claims his rights, as well as those of everyone else has used that number, were violated.

"GRPD staff and officers were never told, or authorized to use Line 3407 to cover up any possible crimes being investigated by GRPD, or potential misconduct/neglect of duty by GRPD officers," the city's response to the lawsuit reads.

The city fired Janiskee March 31 for his involvement in the Nov. 19 investigation of former Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Josh Kuiper's car crash in which alcohol was a factor, according to the officer on the scene.

The non-recorded line "3407" was used five times that night as Janiskee talked to the responding officer, Adam Ickes, and a sergeant, Thomas Warwick, who was in the station and then went to the crash scene.

The release of those five phone calls is the subject of several lawsuits. The city took the issue to a federal judge this year to seek an official ruling on whether they could be used - and Janiskee filed a class-action countersuit in that case.

The city denies wrongdoing in recording the phone calls because it was done inadvertently, according to the city's response to the class-action suit.

City and department officials have only listened to the five calls on line 3407 to investigate Janiskee's "potential involvement with an attempt to cover up a possible crime by Mr. Kuiper, and possible officer misconduct/neglect of duty," documents show.

The phone number in question -- 616-456-3047 -- is a non-public line that is used by the watch commander's office for private and personal phone calls by police. It's also used by the GRPD to discuss sensitive details of criminal investigations, like the names of juvenile offenders, victims' identities and alternate suspects.

An internal department document from Jan. 21, 2014, provided to watch commanders detailing their administrative duties states the 3407 line is not recorded. But that document was revised March 9 to state all phone lines in the watch commander's office are recorded.

The city has an administrative policy, 84-02, that states users waive their right to privacy in "anything they create, store, send, or receive on the city's computer resources," which include all telephones and other communications equipment.

The policy also states: "Users consent to allowing personnel of the City of Grand Rapids, as authorized by the City Manager, to access and review all materials that users create, store, send, or receive on the Computer Resources."

Responses to the federal lawsuit continue to be filed, and no resolution has yet been reached on whether the five phone calls can be released.

Meanwhile, Kent County Judge Dennis Leiber granted motions this month that prevent the release of the phone calls in an injury lawsuit against Kuiper brought by the man he hit in the crash.

Kuiper will stand trial for a charge of reckless driving causing serious impairment of a body function, but a date has not yet been set.